Early Golden Years
by Dawn-0f-Fire
Summary: James Potter has everything he wants, and he's about to get more. He realises quite early, though, that life isn't as easy as he'd like it to be...((All characters belong to JKR))
1. Chapter 1: Remember?

**HOGWARTS PAST: Prongs' Queen.**

Intro: Remember...?

A tall man sat on the cold yellow ruins in front of the clocktower. He sighed yet again, reminding himself of how sad he was going to be in a few days, when he'd have to leave Hogwarts: school of witchcraft and wizardry. He had taken the habit of calling this home since he spent much more time there than at the country house where his parents lived. Yep, James Potter was about to finish his seventh year at Hogwarts, and after the exams earlier that week, he felt there was nothing more fun to do than walk around and remember the good times he and his friends had had together.

He ran a moist hand (it was very warm outside) through his messy raven locks and thought about his friends. He leaned back on the wall halfway covered in moss and let himelf doze off a bit, and his mind wandered the vast gardens of his past.

It felt really strange to know a werewolf. All those rumours... Naturally, his reaction would've been just to laugh and figure it was all one big joke, but this time, on a frigid winter day, when all gryffindor students were crowded up in the tower or in the library, it looked and sounded serious. I mean, why would anyone want to go outside alone at this time? Suspicious, Sirius and James had followed the frail sandy-haired boy before interpelling him just in front of a 'haunted' tree.

The Whommping Willow's branches were whipping around, Remus stood just inches from their grasp. "We can't let him do this, he'll kill himself!" The two other teens, who had been hiding up 'til then, jumped to get Remus to safety.

"What did you think you were doing over there?" James shook the pale, tired figure. "You know, if you want to commit suicide, there are much better ways you can think of." Sirius retorted, arms crossed. "So are you going to tell us why you were going there?" He pointed to the dangerous organic mass, blowing a strand of hair out of his face.

Remus had no choice. They'd never let him go until they found out the truth, and he'd never get there on time, before his transformation if he kept quiet. Beside the fact that it was obivous he was sick, James and Sirius didn't know what was up with him. "I've been wanting to tell you... if- if a friend of yours was... er- different, what would you think?" "You mean the black sheep in the white herd? Awesome. What are you, a vampire? A werewolf?" They questioned, smiles lighting up their faces. "Yeah, actually." He answered, whispering though no one else could hear them "I'm a werewolf."

"Very funny." They both laughed, although they knew it wasn't a joke. Every thing fit: the reason he would dissapear every full moon, the reason he came back with huge gashes on his face and bits of flesh between his teeth...every thing made sense, and yet, it seemed impossible, unreal.

James and his friend had quickly gotten used to it, however, and they had found a way to help him fight the loneliness of being held, for a week, inside a shack, as an untamed wolf. They became animagi to keep him company. Because Werewolves were only attracted to the scent of humans, animals didn't bother them.

It took the Marauders two years to finally perfect the spell they had secretly been practicing. Transforming into animagi was a very long and somewhat painful process, and it was very deangerous, not to forget strictly forbidden to students of that age, and anyone who wasn't 'registered' by the Ministry of Magic. So, naturally, they went about the plan. Every month, for a week, when Remus would take the passage under the Whomping Willow, his friends accompanied him. Only at night, though, for they couldn't afford missing another day of school.

Constantly in detention, they were, oh yes, for, firstly, they never listened in class and never finished their homework on time, they had also picked up the habit of bothering a certain slytherin student, Severus Snape, or 'Snivellus' as they liked to call him. Every new spell they would learn, they'd always test out on him before anything or anyone else. See, Severus wasn't well-liked in Hogwarts, mostly for his hatred of...well, pretty much everything, so many students liked to gather 'round and laugh as the Marauders hexed him over and over, until raging Evans came around the corner to stop them. In fact, James was pretty sure, if Lily hadn't stopped some of those fights on time, they could've turned out very bad, and I mean VERY bad. Sure, James utterly dispised Severus, but not enough to become a murderer.

James blinked, looking around him. The sun was going down. Had he really slept that long? The grounds were bathed in a reddish-orange light and the small amount of clouds surrounding the first quarter of the moon shone violet.

"Ow!" James slapped the mosquito that was sucking the blood from his hand and swore. Maybe he should go in, before a horde of bloodsuckers decided to feast on him. Picking up the bag he had brought with him for no reason, he headed toward the castle's main doors, taking one last glance at his favorite spot; the clocktower.

Pushing the heavy doors to the Great Hall, he remembered the sensation that came over him the first time he had seen this place. The intriguing arquitecture of the walls made it clearly noticeable and when he had looked up... he had gasped and pointed to the sky. "Wow! The ceiling is see-through!"Undoubtedly, Miss Perfect Evans had rolled her eyes and declared she had read in a certain book that it was just some kind of holograph. "Show off..." he had muttered, frowning at the girl.

A smile krept on his lips as he waltzed up the moving flight of stars. He had, on many occasions, gotten lost in the castle, but his friends and him had come across the idea of making a map. Every corner, every staircase, every secret passage was drawn, and every person walking, running, sitting, sleeping, eating was tagged. 'The Marauder's Map' was perfect. The very meaning of pride had been put in that object, and at night, under James' invisbility cloak, they'd prowl around setting their traps and stealing many things from many people. They'd eventually go to the kitchens to fill their stomachs and have a few good laughs until their eyelids were drooping, halfway shut.

They were known as the troublemakers of the century, that wasn't exaggeration. To think that the Marauders would have to split soon. He couldn't imagine not ever seeing Sirius' or Remus' face again. Peter, well...he'd get bored without him around. Point is he didn't want to leave. Not one bit.

"Pomum" he muttered, before the portrait swung open to let him into the common room. The fire wasn't lit, so it was dark enough. The red carpet squeaked under his feet and he threw off his shoes and socks. James readjusted his glasses and hopped on the sofa, turning himself upside down to look at the ceiling. The giant lamp swung from side to side and James wondered if it might fall on his head.

He turned his attention to the landscape painting to the right of the room, hung over the red, and decorated wallpaper. The trees seemed to jump out of the canvas and the sky varied from blue to violet. A dragon, most probably red, was painted just over the horizon and a gryffin, the 'mascot' of Gryffindor sat with pride on the right. Its' feathers ruffled with the light breeze and once in a while, if the room was quiet enough, someone might hear it roar like a lion. It once bit Sirius. Seems impossible, but it's only uncommon.

James ran a hand through his hair once more...he was really going to miss them...his friends, and everyone else he had seen since he was there.


	2. Chapter 2: Snarling Beasts

CHAPTER 2: SNARLING BEASTS 

Yep. He was going to miss everyone..._except_ his large fanclub. Oh, how he had tried and failed to hide from the raging beasts that were these women. They tracked him down like an eagle pounces on its' prey, never let him out of their sight. Rare were the moments when he could breathe and act like himself without having to worry about the ever-watchful eyes of his female fans.

When they fought against each other, pretending to be worthy of him, they reminded James-and many others- of starving hyenas. Savage and rabid creatures snapping and snarling at the other, tearing off bits of flesh, hair, clothes as they went. Gosh, they were creepy.

Of course, the other "males" were jealous of the attention the gals gave James. Since they were all after him; the handsome, smart, cool, talented one, no girls were left for the other guys, who'd eventually pretend that they weren't the lest bit envious of the man.

"Oh, James" they would plead, puckering their lips and fluttering their eyelids so as to look more...attractive."Please, please go out with me. You KNOW I'm better than the other girls." Then they'd give him that "irresistible" smile.

Of course, if James had been sane he would've said "yes" without hesitating, but you see, he had had an eye on another one for quite a while already. One, who didn't seem the least bit interested in joining his numerous admirers. The lovely Lily-or Lillian- Evans had captured his heart, ever since they had first met.

James Potter, having received his letter of acceptance at Hogwarts, had bought more than enough things to bring along to school. Folded nicely into his trunk, about nine robes-in case he didn't have time to get them washed, two hats, two scarves-in case one got stained, five cauldrons-he was never really good at cooking things anyway, and a few extra books (not that he'd ever read them of course). All these objects were packed in his trunk and piled somewhat carelessly onto his cart.

The unlucky Lily Evans just happened to pass by at that moment and managed to slither through most of the crouded platform. Unfortunately, she hadn't seen James' cart and had stumbled into it, sending the contents of both their trunks flying up and landing, scattered about around the two kids.

"Watch out!" The young teenager yelled just before the girl tripped over the base of the cart and came tumbling down with all their belongings.

"Great." Lily groaned, picking up her things with her parent's help. "Name's James Potter." The boy held out his hand, but she just grumbled some more."I'm going to be so late because of you." "Nice to meet you too." James replied, helping her back up.

They hadn't had much time to get aquainted, for the train announced its' departure very soon, but they had each set a first impression on the other. Lily practically loathed James, while he had fallen in love with the graceful redhead.

Throughout the years, James' behaviour as well as that of his friends had disgusted Lily. They were always off bothering the innocent, they craved attention and so they often made fools out of themselves in order to get noticed. All James had ever wanted was to catch her attention, and he did. Things just didn't work out _exactly _the way he had planned. It was only a few weeks ago that he had realized Lily wasn't attracted to his boldness, even less his ego or 'sense of pride', but his sensibility, honesty, and, you have to admit, persistance.

For seven years James asked her out, and for seven years she refused, until she had finally been happy to see his ego deflate a little and his arrogance fade away to finally accept spending time in his company, as a tad more than what's called 'friends'. James, along with his newly achieved trophee, often took walks along the river's side, hand in hand. They didn't have to say much to love each other, in fact, most of their little evening strolls were spent silently, enjoying the light breeze and the company.

Lily walked into the common room and smiled at the sight of James sitting upside down on the red leather sofa. "'Night." She said smoothly. "'Night." He replied, deciding it might also be time for him to go to bed.

It was with the picture of the elegant, red-haired Lily, that James fell asleep every night, and this time was no exception. Eyes dry and body sore and tingly, he krept upstairs, without bothering to ruffle his hair or change into his pyjamas, and sank into his bed, smiling.


	3. Chapter 3: Anonymous

CHAPTER 3: ANONYMOUS

The morning came only too fast for poor James, who had barely had any shut-eye all night, his mind wandering the pathes of the future, for instance, his marriage.

With the rising sun's rays blinding him, and his friend Sirius tickling his feet, he decided his good mood had gone, at least for a little while. Being an optimist, James never kept grudges very long. He growled and released the tension of his feet, pretending he was stretching. Sirius fell to the floor with a thud, holding his now-bruised jaw.

"That should teach you not to wake a man when he's sleeping" Remus chuckled softly as he also stretched his limbs. "You call _that_ a man?" Sirius retorted, pulling himself back up. He sat on James and added, with a satisfied expression: "A real man would've kissed his girlfriend goodnight, Moony."

James raised his head and opened his eyes. "You were watching!?" He shouted, talking about last night. "Every bit of it." Peter cut in " but it was his idea." The one they nicknamed 'Wormtail' spat quickly, pointing to Sirius, who didn't flinch.

Rolling his eyes, James pushed Sirius off the bed, with great difficulty and dropped to the ground. He stumbled down the stairs, having forgotten some clean clothes down in the common room and hopped not-so-merrily back up where his friends still stood, waiting for him, before going to the Great Hall for breakfast. They were all starving. Quite a typical morning for the Marauders, something they would miss as soon as they'd have graduated from Hogwarts.

"Mornin', Lil." Sirius laughed as he took a seat right beside her. Since his best friend had started going out with her, he had taken certain...liberties. For instance, calling Lily, "LIL' ", and getting uncomfortably close to her. Of course, this was all just for fun, if Sirius was...well...serious, James already would've done something about it. After all, Lily was _his_ girlfriend.

"Honestly, Padfoot, she's not YOUR girlfriend." Remus stated, only a little too loudly. "Oh!" Sirius replied. "And I suppose she's yours?" "No, but-" Remus tried to justify. Unfortunately, Peter didn't let them finish their little argument. As was his usual habit, he tried to change the conversation: "Oh, look at you two, arguing like an old married couple." "How adorable." James added, a immense smirk on his face.

"I'm heading to the library."Remus said abstractedly. "Oh, no, Moony, I want to know something first." "Yes, Sirius?" Remus sighed, looking over his shouldder. There was a long silence, as if he was seriously thinking, for once. "Who would be the female?" At this point, the Marauders burst out laughing, covering every other sound from the Hall.

Remus sat back down after they had wiped their tears, and poured himself (and Sirius) a bowl of Cheerios.

Lily, who happened to be sitting right beside them, and had been following the conversation, smiled and rolled her eyes at the four of them, who were making more noise than perhaps anyone else in the Great Hall. She smiled specifically at James before taking another drink from her goblet and a bite of her toast.

"I personally think Sirius would be the wife," she said after a moment, with a slight grin. "He's just got that sort of feminine charm." She smiled sweetly at Sirius and returned to her breakfast.

Everyone who happened to have heard them conversing burst out laughing again, agreeing completely to Lily's opinion. Sirius fluttered his eyelids and smiled sweetly, crossing his legs under the table. "Come 'ere, Remmy Poo!" He laughed, pulling toward him a panic-stuck Remus. "Lemme give you a kissy kissy." "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the other cried. "Anything but that!" he shrieked, terrorised.

He knew Sirius wasn't serious at all, thus why he attempted to fight his way out of Sirius' grasp, thrashing around, as his body was forced closer to his friends'. To his surprise, he was released, without having been touched. "I understand..." Sirius sighed. " You're not ready to take that step yet. It's alright." He patted Moony, who flinched everytime his head collided with the massive hand that was Sirius'. "I can wait a bit longer." "I'd prefer if you waited forever." Alright. Bad joke, but at least it closed the matter.

They finished their breakfast merrily, and made their way to the common room to fetch their stuff for first class. It was a Thursday morning: Charms was first, then Divination.

The classroom where professor Flitwick taught his classes was bright enough; two long, narrow windows carved out from the back of the room illuminated the dark, elm wood structures that served as seats and desks. The equally dark walls were littered in complicated and confuzing images pinned to burgundy red paint.

Flitwick was waiting for the kids by the door, the same welcoming smile on his face. "Good day, professor." Lily greeted, taking a seat closer to the teacher's desk, situated beside the windows. The Marauders followed soon after, behind some Hufflepuff students, also in their last year.

The bell rang and professor Flitwick ordered silence before he started speaking. The exams were over and there was nothing left to learn, so he decided to have a discussion on the advantages of learning charms, which turned into more of a debate on who was good at certain spells and who was worse. Flitwick seemed to be enjoying listening to out-of-control teens, occasionally trying to reduce the amount of noise resounding in everyone's ears, and falling back into an avid conversation on the different effects of spells with the studious part of the class, which included Lily Evans and several Hufflepuff students.

Meanwhile, the Marauders had an 'intimate' 'chat' with Padfoot. "Very well proportionned, that Amber, though very fragile." "So she's your new girlfriend, eh?" "Well, not _yet_." Sirius whispered, leaning in.

"What house is she in?" Remus asked, seeming somewhat interested in the subject. He himself had never had a girlfriend, mostly because he was afraid to reveal his secret to anyone, or maybe the fact that Sirius went on a date with a different girl every week, hardly ever getting satisfied traumatised him. "Huffelpuff, I think." He replied. "You don't even know?" "I _said_ Hufflepuff. There, you see?" getting irritated, he pointed to a short, thin woman, wavy caramel colored hair that fell lightly upon her shoulders, big and bright hazel eyes, a bit like James'. She looked like a skeleton with a bad makeover.

"Padfoot," James gulped rather loudly. "Are you sure? I mean, wasn't there someone _else_ available?" Sirius turned to him, eyebrow raised. He pondered for a moment. "Well, now that you mention it, a certain Lily Evans was free at the time." He answered, a malevolent flame burning in his eyes. Knowing it was a joke, James stayed unmoved, but a feeling of jealousy over-took him nevertheless. He quickly shook it out of his mind, and changed the conversation.

"The Headmaster wants to meet us tomorrow night." He announced, lowering his voice to an almost imperceptible whisper. In the same tone, the others revealed their astonishment. "What? Why?" "Something 'bout work after graduation." James replied, shifting uneasily. He ran a hesitant hand through the ebony strands on top of his head, shrugging. "I really don't know." He stated. "But I think it's s-" He was cut of by the resounding echoes of the bell, the ones announcing the end of first class. "Let's go fore-tell our futures in crystal balls." Remus sighed. As eager as he was to pass all his classes, this one was by far the least important. He proclaimed to believe living life one step at a time was simple, and much better than if you knew what was coming.

"After you." Sirius showed him the door, resting his hand on the rugged handle. "I'd really rather play quidditch." "We know, Prongs, we know." "James! Sirius!" The Marauders whirled around to find, to their dismay, a group of girls who were heading in their direction. The fanclub. "What do we do, what do we do?" James panicked. "You go this way, I'll take that hall. We split and meet at the divination tower when we've lost them." "'Kay." They sprinted in opposite ways as the horde closed down on them.

Remus and Peter had long gone since then, Sirius had been chased down to the dungeons while James, poor James, had been forced to hide outside amongst the infinite field of boulders somewhere abut the grounds. He had finally, after a great deal of effort, managed to run away from his raging fanclub, and he was seriously starting to believe being as popular as handsome as he, was a bad idea.

James ran a hand through his dark, un-tidy hair and grunted. The bell had probably already rung, and he'd get yet another detention. Great. He glanced around, thankful for the fact that no girls had followed him.

Or so he thought. "There he is!" The throng screeched, quickly gaining on him. James ran back to the castle, turned a corner, went up a flight of stairs, etc. If only he could reach the divination tower before... "Oh, no." They had cornered him. They were ever so slowly creeping up on him, fingernails just tickling his skin. "No, no. Gir-ladies" He gasped, "I'm sure there's another way to settle this..."

"Mister Potter! What are you doing at this time out of class? I know exams are over, but it's no reason to skip!" Thank goodness. A teacher. "Come to my office. Now." The professor shoo-ed away the gals that surrounded him and sent them back to their classes as well, before adressing James again. "What class do you have?" "Divination. Just over there." He pointed to the spiral staircase at the other end of the corridor. "I'll see you at four then, I believe." James sighed as the older man walked down the hall. "Yeah, sure." He muttered, turning back to the tower and climbing up the stairs.


	4. Chapter 4: Detentionagain

CHAPTER 4: DETENTION...AGAIN

"Ah, there you are Potter. I sense you have another detention." The professor nagged at James while re-adjusting his frilly turban. The boy closed the trap and sat down beside his friend Sirius black, but said nothing in return. Either he had heard the conversatin below between the teacher and him, or he had just guessed. There was nothing divinatory about it. Nothing.

"I've got detention after school." James told his friend later on as they were unveiling the secrets to their future lives 'for fun'. "Yeah, I know." James looked up from behind his fogged glasses (they were observing the froth from coffee bubbling inside oddly shaped mugs) a question mark practically pasted to his forehead. "I saw it in the froth!" James choked, nearly falling from his seat. "The froth told me! I swear it!" James mocked, wiping his tears. He snorted again, unable to contain his laughter any longer. "Honestly, Padfoot. I think you had a tad too much coffee this morning." He stared down into the ceramic jug where the liquid was still swirling slowy. "I hope you didn't drink some of _that_ stuff." He motioned. Sirius laughed and picked up his coffee, bringing it ever so slowly to his lips.

"Go ahead, Black. I'm sure you'd like the rather bitter taste of the future." He looked around. Darn. The table set beside theirs was occupied by slytherins. "Mind your own futures, scumbags." James retorted, throwing them a dirty look. "Scumbags?" A blonde woman gasped, placing a very freshly manicured hand over her lips. "Repugnant skunks." "Better to be alive and smelly than killed, chewed, digested, excreted AND foul smelling."Sirius sneered, pinching his nose. "Better to know what you'll become than risk ending up as roadkill." The teacher cut in. "Enough blabbering. Go." He pointed to the open trap where a few students were waiting to get down and leave this intoxicating atmosphere.

True enough, you'd easily get headaches from standing in the room a mere minute longer than you had to. The professor, reassured by the many scents of his candles, felt it was much easier to concentrate on future telling, although that was far from what the students felt. Holding his head, James walked down the dungeon halls, Sirius by his side (they had taken a passageway to get to the Great Hall faster). Being the first to sit down, they quickly stuffed their plates with food and began to guttle all they could before the place filled up with hungry students.

The rest of the afternoon was spent day-dreaming, and before he knew it, James found himself inside Filchs' office, listening to the sadistic old man talk about "utter pain and torture in the good days" while stroking the fur on his cats' back. The felines' piercing eyes were watching James' every move, hardly blinking.

"Er- I don't mean to insult you, and I don't think torture is a boring subject... actually quite the contrary..." He muttered, shifting uneasily. "Get to the point, lad." Filch spat, eyeing the young man in the same manner as his cat. "Well, I'd like to get this detention thing overwith, so..." "Ah, yes. Well, I could get you to clean every floor and painting with your bare hands," he smiled, revealing excessively croked teeth "but I'm too tired to enjoy it at the moment..." He thought. There wasn't really anything to do, and letting him go was way out of question.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up." James repeated, walking down the halls, the rest of the Marauders laughing hysterically beside him. The night before, when Filch had given him a certain job to do, well...let's just say James hadn't expected to clean the tank where the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher kept his little experiments...

Covered in nasty purple lumps, the seventh year Gryffindor had come to the Hospital Wing, only to be the center of a great laughing circle in which Madam Pomfrey enthousiastically took part. She had, between two coughs, ordered him to go back to sleep. "You'll be fine, Potter." Pomfrey had said, "There's nothing I can do." Rolling his eyes, James turned his back to the nurse, and walked away.

He had passed one of the most terrible nights of his life, constantly turning and tossing, the lumps digging into his back, sides, arms, legs, you name it, and now, he was facing the consequences of his previous actions (during divination). "So have you learned your lesson yet, James?" Lily laughed at him as she came up from behind the group and walked beside them. "And what lesson would that be, Lily?" "The 'let's never get into detention again' lesson, perhaps?" she shook her head. 'Hopeless...' she thought. "Ah. Yes. No more of these. I don't deserve them. Why do they always pick on me!? What did I do to them?" "You charmed them with your physical beauty, Prongs." Sirius laughed, pulling himself away from the 'monster' as to not get 'contaminated'.

"Dumbledore..." Remus whispered suddenly, stopping his feet. "What?" Peter, James, Sirius and Lily turned around. "We were supposed to meet hiim last night." "You didn't?!" James exclaimed, whacking Sirius on the head. "Well, we forgot." The other answered, holding his bruised head. He'd gotten hit in the head so often lately...


	5. Chapter 5: Almost There

CHAPTER 5: ALMOST THERE…

**_((Just wanted to add a little note: I haven't said it in the past, but I think it's quite obvious that the story and the characters here are NOT mine. That said, nowenjoy the next chapter!...and don't frget to review.please.))_**

Two days were left until then end of school, until the end of childhood. The headmaster had managed to catch up to the Marauders throughout the day to inform them of times that were to come.

"You see, aurors run quite a wide array of risks, and by enrolling yourself in this profession, you will undoubtedly end up with a few scars, much like these brave gentlemen." Dumbledore handed them a few newspaper clips and pictures containing people with missing limbs, distorted faces, unusual bodily fluids seeping out of them, and so on. "You will find there are many spells to be learned, many which you must cast only in order to fulfill your duties-" "Get the bad guys!" Sirius snorted, dropping the papers back on Dumbledore's desk. "That's right." Boy, did the word 'serious' exist for them?

"No offence, professor, but perhaps it might be best if you get to the point straight away before these _imps_ lose interest?" "Interest! Moony that's the best joke you've ever said!"Sirius roared, tilting his chair back so far the back legs threated to snap off. "It's the only one." James reminded them. Peter was the last one to laugh. "I don't get it." He said, perplexed. Dumbledore, who had raised his head toward the ceiling to prevent a smile from being seen on his face, rolled his eyes. "Yes, perhaps I should get straight to the point."

He placed a soft hand in front of his mouth as he coughed a bit, then spoke again, hoping he wouldn't be interrupted this time. "As I was saying, many skills are required to pursue in this line of work, and not all of them are taught here, in Hogwarts. The reason for this: the Ministry of Magic, considerate as they are, has refused me the opportunity to build a training room or let me- or any other professor here, for that matter- teach in detail… what's… missing." The old man seemed satisifed at the chosen vocabulary. " Understand?" He asked, stooking his long silvery beard. He got a nod from each of the Marauders, and continued his 'speech'. "As such, I find I'll have to send you away, whether you like it or not (he smiled) to another school, in a few days, to successfully train you-" He was cut off again by Sirius' bark-like laughter "To kick evil's itsy bitsy tush." "In the meantime," Dumbledore raised his voice, "enjoy you're your last few days. I'll send you all an owl sometime soon. Dissmissed."

"Bring it on." Sirius challenged as the four friends headed down the stairs of the Headmaster's office. James smiled. "Pretty cool don't you think?" His friends gave him a questionning look. "We're finally getting to the end of it, we've finally finished working to achieve what we've wanted for the past few years of our lives. But what do we do next? Isn't there somekind of higher level to get to after this?" "See, Prongs, this is why we took Divination, no?" "To see beyond our imagination, to the harsh reality of the future washing upon us as a wave hits the shoreline before drawing back… and that's when we drown." "Fantastic, Padfoot. And I actually thought you had some poetic side to you for a second there." Remus chuckled. "I think it's great. Especially that little sadistic twist at the end." "Sadistic?" "Yes, Padfoot. Sadistic." "Wonder where the word comes from…" "Don't we all…" Four sighs were heard consecutively and echoed throughout the corridor.

There was no moon in the infinite blue veil that hung over the world, but the comforting light of the torches guided the Marauders' way back to their beds, into a world of dreams, where even the most sadistic of all realities couldn't reach them.

In the middle of the night, James was awakened by some shuffling noise coming from the end of his bed. Panicked at first, he quickly realised it was his friend Padfoot, leaning over his chest, obviously searching for something. "You know, maybe you should ask before taking my invisibility cloak." James yawned, knowing exactly what Sirius was up to. "I was going to wake you up anyway." The other replied taking the soft material out from under the pile of books Prongs used to hide it.

" Where're you going?" James picked up his glasses from the bedside table and placed them on his nose. With a great amount of effort, he pulled himself out of bed and shivered when his bare feet hit the cold, hard floor. Sirius wasn't going anywhere without him. "I was thinking maybe a nice little walk like we used to, maybe set up a last little prank. We won't have time to do it tomorrow, we'll be busy packing." It'd been a while since they'd played a prank on anyone other than Severus, and even at that… "Coming along, my good friend?" "Why ask stupid questions you already know the answer to?" James put on a robe and followed him out of the common room. At this hour, everyone- except for them- was sound asleep, and so they risked nothing but Filch and his lousy cat, Mrs. Norris.

"What kind of prank were you planning on setting up, Padfoot?" James asked as they were walking through the dark corridors, a soft light emanating from each of their wands, and the invisibility cloak slightly sticking out of one of Jamess pockets. "Not sure, exactly," Sirius replied, tying up his wavy hair in a short ponytail. "But I thought I'd find something soon enough." He paused. "What do _you_ think we should do?" "Make them remember us." Prongs answered right away, running a hand through his dark, tangled hair. He grinned. "I've got an idea, follow me."


End file.
